• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Festival Triad From Lesia Dychko

23 November, 1999 - 00:00

The Golden Domed Kyiv Festival, held for the third time in the capital, is a reality thanks to the energy of its director Mykola Hobdych who is also artistic director of the Kyiv Choir, one of Ukraine’s best. Although the festival is just the publicly visible part of what is being done by the company and its leader in popularizing Ukrainian choral music. The choir has released 10 CDs with national and foreign music, which is especially important now that the domestic music-publishing companies are in a state of total devastation; the choir initiated the publication of music by Ukrainian composers on its repertoire.

On the first day the Kyiv Choir presented a layer of church music (from the sixteenth century monody to the period of neoclassicism) and folk music arranged by twentieth century composers, organically combining the academic church rendition with the sparkling theatricality of folk music.

On the second day one of Ukraine’s most merited choral groups, the Hryhory Veriovka Folk Choir, performed. It is significant that the search for things new in the choral art finds reflection in a collective that seems designed exclusively for the performance of folk music. However, it appears that arranging folk melodies is possible in different ways, including the modern jazz style. And it is possible to perform church music in the folk style, imagining how it must have sounded in Ukraine’s many village churches.

Of course, the culmination of the festival was its two final days, dedicated to the work of one of the most interesting modern Ukrainian composers and master of choral writing Lesia Dychko. Lesia Dychko’s creativeness, whose jubilee coincided with the festival days, is a whole epoch in the history of Ukrainian choral music. The public’s special attention was glued to two monumental compositions: French Frescoes and Solemn Liturgy, as a musical embodiment of impressions gained from French castles located in the picturesque spots of the Loire valley. It is a composition in which elements of traditional music and modern choral writing are organically blended. A bright event, premiere of the Solemn Liturgy, took place within the framework of the festival. It is Lesia Dychko’s third composition in this genre. The other two, written almost ten years ago, are heard not only on the concert stage, but also where they should be, in church. A musical canvas of huge dimensions did not sound in its completeness at the concert, but much to the delight of all devotees and admirers of Lesia Dychko’s work, the Kyiv Choir had prepared a CD with this composition, which could be purchased there, along with the score. One would wish the premiere-record-score triad could accompany, if not every then at least the most significant compositions of this composer, and not only on her jubilee.

Rubric: